A review by marklpotter
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone
4.0
I had some trepidation going in to this one, hoping against hope that we weren't in for a sophomore slump. Max Gladstone avoided that with style and flourish! Full Fathom Five continues to expand on the mythology introduced in the first two books of this series by dropping us in yet another country with another set of characters and another set of gods, well almost but not quite? And therein lies the rub really.
Mainly focused around a street urchin, a priest, a poet, and an avatar this one is set on a tropical island obviously modeled after Hawaii. Now that's not a detractor at all. Of Gladstone's major strengths is giving us enough familiar things that suspension of disbelief is a just a little easier before dropping his well crafted mythology right in our laps.
While I think most folks won't see this installment of The Craft Sequence as having the same punch the first two did I think they'd be wrong. This is a look at the business side of things in a world where your soul is currency and the people involved in that side of things. I don't mean the business side of things like the guy selling tacos from a cart but the very corporate side of idolatry for profit. What this leads to is a lot of character development, in the first half of the book, that doesn't seem to be all that relevant.
Perseverance is more than it's own reward here. All of that character development actually plays in to the very meat of the plot which becomes apparent and then takes off at a sprint about halfway through. I think the pacing might be a bit off but it doesn't detract from the story in any noticeable fashion.
Like both of the other books in this series this story works as a standalone and can be read as such. I appreciate the effort that must go in to making that happen because it can't be an accident. However I think the background that the other books provide make reading this one more enjoyable. I highly recommend this series.
Mainly focused around a street urchin, a priest, a poet, and an avatar this one is set on a tropical island obviously modeled after Hawaii. Now that's not a detractor at all. Of Gladstone's major strengths is giving us enough familiar things that suspension of disbelief is a just a little easier before dropping his well crafted mythology right in our laps.
While I think most folks won't see this installment of The Craft Sequence as having the same punch the first two did I think they'd be wrong. This is a look at the business side of things in a world where your soul is currency and the people involved in that side of things. I don't mean the business side of things like the guy selling tacos from a cart but the very corporate side of idolatry for profit. What this leads to is a lot of character development, in the first half of the book, that doesn't seem to be all that relevant.
Perseverance is more than it's own reward here. All of that character development actually plays in to the very meat of the plot which becomes apparent and then takes off at a sprint about halfway through. I think the pacing might be a bit off but it doesn't detract from the story in any noticeable fashion.
Like both of the other books in this series this story works as a standalone and can be read as such. I appreciate the effort that must go in to making that happen because it can't be an accident. However I think the background that the other books provide make reading this one more enjoyable. I highly recommend this series.